Fall 2012 Class Descriptions

Tax I provides students with an understanding of the basic principles of federal income tax, including gross income, deductions, tax accounting, capital transactions, and income shifting. Required for upper-class students.

Tax I provides students with an understanding of the basic principles of federal income tax, including gross income, deductions, tax accounting, capital transactions, and income shifting. Required for upper-class students.

This course involves an intensive examination of federal tax research techniques, including locating and evaluating legislative history, administrative authorities,and judicial decisions with attention to comparative weights and relationships among various authorities. Students are required to conduct various research and validation tasks, and to prepare complex tax documents, such as, ruling requests, protests, opinion letters, memoranda of law, and Tax Court petitions. Enrollment is limited to 12 students (no JDs) with priority to 1) December graduates and 2) full-time students.

This course involves an intensive examination of federal tax research techniques, including an evaluation of legislative history and administrative authorities. Students are required to research and prepare complex tax documents such as protests, opinion letters, memoranda of law, and Tax Court petitions. The course may not be counted toward the LLM if the candidate elects to write a thesis. Enrollment is limited to 12 students (no JDs) with priority to 1) December graduates and 2) full-time students.

This course examines the Anti-Money Laundering and Asset Forfeiture laws utilized to dismantle ongoing criminal enterprises. We will review the various money laundering offenses under Title 18, anti-money laundering programs under the Bank Secrecy Act, and civil and criminal asset forfeiture. We will also review various defenses available to defendants and federal sentencing guidelines. This is an advanced tax course with priority enrollment for LLM in Taxation students. Prerequisite: Tax I. Grade determined by in-class final exam.

3 credit(s)Requirement: SkillsConcentration(s): LLM in Business and Corporate Law (LLMB), Intellectual Property Law (LLMG), Intellectual Property (LLMC), Business and Corporate Law (LLMC), Intellectual Property (JD), Business and Corporate Law (JD)

This course places students at local law firms to provide legal assistance to local technology startups in the areas of intellectual property prosecution and licensing, corporate formation and transactions, contracts, employment, and related areas. Students will be supervised by attorneys at local law firms as well as the professor. The course will begin with 3-4 weeks of class sessions covering the core types of transactions encountered in technology startups. There are no scheduled classes during the remainder of the semester; instead, students will work with the companies and supervising lawyers each week, and meet one-on-one with the professor on a regular basis. An application process will be used to select students for the course. Students who registered for the course during 2011-12 may not apply for the course for 2012-13. Students may only begin the course in the fall semester, and may continue in the spring semester, but are not required to do so. The course application and additional course information will be emailed no later than Friday, April 6, 2012. Students who do not receive an application by April 6, 2012, or who have questions about the course after reviewing the application, may email Professor Ted Sichelman, tsichelman@sandiego.edu. The deadline to submit an application for this course is Friday, April 20, 2012.

Note: There are limitations on JD concentration eligibility. Please check the JD concentration web pages for more information. Contact Law Student Affairs to find out if your work in this clinic qualifies for the concentration.Additional Information:JD Concentrations Web Page, Email Law Student Affairs

The distribution of goods and the provision of services in the global economy – and hence the production of revenue – frequently involves technology transfer. A grasp of the law of technology transfers, and the application of that law into practice are essential tools of a practicing business lawyer. This course will focus on the law and practice of development and exploitation of proprietary technology as well as the commercialization of that technology through the manufacture and distribution of products and provision of services. We will review the intellectual property law underpinnings of a technology transfer practice, including copyrights, patents, trade secrets and know-how, and trademarks, and then focus on how technology transfer agreements differ depending on the underlying intellectual property rights. We will review the basic building blocks of intellectual property agreements, and then together write software license agreements, patent license agreements, independent contractor agreements and terms and conditions of sale. Drafting skills will be developed using both lecture and practical training methods (hypothetical business scenarios coupled with drafting exercises based on those scenarios). This course will be practical in its orientation, with an emphasis on drafting documents customarily encountered by lawyers practicing in the technology transfer space.

This seminar permits students to explore advanced issues in family law or community property in more detail than a survey course. Each student will prepare and present a paper on a topic chosen by the student with input from the professor. Successful completion of the paper will satisfy the upper class writing requirement. Students should consider what topic they may wish to explore even before the first class. Students receive letter grades (ABCDF) for the course. The seminar will progress through three stages: a brief introduction to family law and community property; a discussion of several interesting articles addressing important issues in family law; and the presentation of student papers. Topics studied will vary, but may include the evolving definition of family, the appropriate role of the state in regulating or protecting families or family members, the role of private agreements in forming or governing families, and ways family law serves (or should serve) the needs of children.

This class is designed to provide students with an understanding of insurance law, with an emphasis on insurance litigation. This class will include relevant case law and real-life examples to provide students with the ability to identify and analyze potential insurance issues they will encounter in the practice of law. This class will also discuss the future issues expected to arise in insurance, including a look at the post-9-11 Terrorism Risk Insurance Act. The first part of the class will provide a mixture of lecture and discussion. The second part of the class will be taught in a seminar format. Students will be required to complete an in-depth research paper and make a presentation of their paper to the class. The paper will meet the written work requirement.

Torts (Staff)LWAA540

4 credit(s)

An exploration of the principles involved in determining whether an injured person should be compensated for harm caused by another, including such diverse topics as intentional harms, negligence, and strict liability.

The Fall 2012 Trademarks Seminar will feature three main components: (1) a survey of the main professional, philosophical, historical, constitutional, common law, and domestic and international statutory frameworks that relate to mark assertion, registration, rights, and infringement; (2) a seminar-like classroom format (to the fullest extent its student participants support); and (3) an evaluation format based on three short projects that are spread through the course. Students searching for a course with a final exam should look elsewhere.

In this course the non-tax aspects of estate planning are integrated, combining wills, trusts, future interests, and community property. Methods of family wealth transfer in both community property and non-community property jurisdictions are considered, including: inter vivos gifts, wills, trusts, intestate succession and will substitutes. Fiduciary administration; class gifts; powers of appointment; the rule against perpetuities; charitable trusts; classification, control and management of community property; and the distribution of property on dissolution of the community are studied.

This survey course provides an introduction to non-tax aspects of estate planning and the law of gratuitous transfers, including inter vivos gifts, intestate succession, wills, will substitutes, trusts, fiduciary administration, and future interests.

This survey course provides an introduction to non-tax aspects of estate planning and the law of gratuitous transfers, including inter vivos gifts, intestate succession, wills, will substitutes, trusts, fiduciary administration, and future interests.

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